{{citation |... other appropriate parameters ...}} (|ref=harv is not required when using {{Citation}}).

Parameters

Up to four authors can be given as parameters. (If there are more than 4 authors only the first 4 should be listed. See § Large numbers of authors, below.) The last required parameter is the year of publication.

(All these examples have links which operate. Click on highlighted text.)

The optional parameters |p=, |pp= and |loc= can be used to indicate the location in the source. All of the Harvard citation templates use the same parameters to indicate page numbers or other locations in the text. For single pages, use |p=; and for multiple pages (such as ranges), use |pp=. Use of |p= for multiple pages or |pp= for single pages can cause cite errors.

The optional parameter |postscript= or |ps= can be used to change the text which appears at the end of the note in the reference list. (See § Additional comments or quotes, below.) The default is a period (full stop); to remove this use {{sfn|Smith|2005|p=25|ps=none}}. (See § No closing period, below.) The postscript is only effective the first time {{sfn}} is used for a particular author, year and location.

The optional parameter |ref= is used to specify the reference value that links the short citation to the full citation. This parameter is usually not necessary and it is more common to use {{sfnRef}} or {{harvid}} in the reference section. If you specify |ref=none no hyperlink is created. Note that, if one does not want the link, it is always possible to simply not use the template. (Not available in {{sfn}} and similar templates.)

Aliases

The parameters |page=|pages= and |Ref= exist as aliases for |p=|pp= and |ref= respectively.

Reference section

The links in the Harvard citation templates can find anchors in CS1, CS2 and similar templates. To make the anchor, parameter |ref=harv must be set. This is not necessary for {{citation}}, but is normally necessary for the others.

Author–date citation templates

There are several templates used to create in-text citations; they differ in the use and placement of parenthesis, in the separator before the page or location and in whether a terminal full stop (period) is present:

All of these templates have the same parameters and basic functionality. This page describes all of them except the parameters of {{sfnm}} and {{harvs}}; please see their documentation pages. Editors editing one of these templates are requested to make parallel changes to the other versions.

Template {{harvnb}} inside a <ref> span can be used to create a Скраћене фусноте that is linked to the full citation at the bottom of the article. Template {{sfn}} (without the use of <ref>) has the same effect and it also combines identical footnotes automatically.

More exotic Harvard citations can be constructed using the {{harvs}} template, such as multiple papers by the same author, using both the first and last names, links to articles about the author, and others. Any kind of unusual link can also be constructed using the idiom [[#{{harvid|parameters}}|link name]].

Викиозначавање

Резултат у чланку

The theory was developed by {{harvs|txt|first=F. J.|last=Murray|author1-link=F. J. Murray|first2=J.|last2=von Neumann|author2-link=John von Neumann|year=1936|year2=1937|year3=1943}}.

Additional comments or quotes: |ps=

Parameter |ps= can be used to add quotes or additional comments. Note that this effect can also be achieved using {{harvnb}}, if done as shown in the last example. The postscript is only effective the first time {{sfn}} is used for a particular author, year and location.

No closing period: |ps=none

Using |ps=none in {{sfn}} removes the final period. Compare the two examples. Suppressing the default period (full stop) ensures consistency with Citation style 2, as produced by {{Citation}}, which does not use a trailing period (full stop) in notes. The postscript is only effective the first time {{sfn}} is used for a particular author, year and location. |ps= will also suppress terminal punctuation. Follow-on editors who encounter 'empty' parameters can't know if a previous editor intended to leave that parameter blank. Using the keyword none is a positive indication of the previous editor's intent.

Possible issues

Wikilink to citation does not work

If an article is using this template, and nothing happens when you click on the highlighted wikilink from a Harvard style citation to a full citation at the bottom of the page, there are several possible solutions. If:

The correct citation does not appear at the bottom of the article. Solution: Find the source (it may be copied from an article on a similar subject), and check that it verifies the text. If the source can't be found, tag the citation with {{citation not found}}.

The name is spelled or capitalized differently here than the citation. Solution: check the source for the correct spelling.

The year is different here than the citation. Solution: check the source for the correct year.

The citation template requires |ref=harv (not needed for {{citation}}, but is needed for most other Citation Style 1 templates). Solution: Add |ref=harv.

The template has a |date= field and no |year= field, but the format of the |date= field is unusual. Solution: Try to fix the date. If the link still does not work, add |year= to the citation template. (It's okay if it has both.)

The citation does not have an author's, or an editor's, last name (authors take precedence over editors). Solution: check that |ref={{harvid}} is set correctly (see below).

It has no wikicode to create an anchor. Solution: If {{cite *}} citation templates are used liberally throughout the article, then reformat the citation with the appropriate {{cite *}} template and set the |ref= appropriately. Otherwise consult with local editors on the talk page about how to proceed. Either add {{cite *}} templates and {{harv}} templates, or remove all templates, depending on what local editors prefer. A few articles use {{wikicite}} to create an anchor as an alternative to standard templates.

Uses a <cite>...</cite> span to create an anchor. Solution: remove the cite span (these are deprecated) and proceed as with the previous.

More than one work in a year

Where there is a need to cite more than one work by the same author published in the same year, the standard way to disambiguate such works is to add a letter suffix after the year element of the {{sfn}} template (e.g. {{sfn|Smith|2006a}} and {{sfn|Smith|2006b}}).

Templates that use Module:Citation/CS1

When {{sfn}} is used with {{citation}} or CS1 templates, a year-suffix letter may be added to |date= for all accepted date formats except year initial numeric (YYYY-MM-DD). It is not necessary to include both |year= and |date=. If both are included, |year= is used for the CITEREF anchor to be compliant with legacy citations.

|date=2013a – simple year only dates

|date=Jan 2013b or |date=Winter 2013b – month or season and year dates

|date=9 November 2013b or |date=November 9, 2013b – full dates

|date=June–July 2013c or |date=Winter–Spring 2013c – month or season ranges and year dates

More than one author with the same last name

The above solution to add a letter suffix after the year element also works for multiple authors with the same last name. For example, both Richard Bushman and Claudia Lauper Bushman published books in 2006. To differentiate between the two books, the first one is given the year "2006a" and the second one "2006b".

Large numbers of authors

Only the first four authors are required by the template. Listing more is not supported. It is also possible to use the |ref={{harvid}} in the citation template, which allows a more concise citation in the article text.

No author name in citation template

Some sources do not have a single author with a last name, such as a magazine article or a report from a government institution. There is no consensus (in Wikipedia or among citation styles) about how to format author–date citations to works that do not have a specific author. Several choices are:

For a newspaper or periodical you may use the name of the paper and the date.

For a publication by an institution, use either:

The initials of the institution

The name of the institution

Alternatively, some style guides recommend using the title of the article.

Other style guides recommend using "Anonymous" or "Anon."

An article should adopt one of these styles consistently. Using |ref={{harvid}} in the citation template can handle these cases.

Citation has |date= and no |year=

Either the |year= or |date= of a citation template can be matched – the template logic can extract the year from a full date. If the date parameter is not a full date, then the extraction will fail. If the link does not seem to work, it also possible to set both |date= and |year= parameters. The template will display the date and use the year for the anchor. If only the year is known the |year= field must be used in the citation for the link to work correctly (i.e. |date=2005 may not work correctly). These two examples show a year being successfully extracted from full date.

Citation template does not support |ref=harv

The CSV family of templates use parameter |ref=harvid to create an anchor for the Harvard citation templates. This must be set to a concatenation of the parameters passed to the Harvard citation template.

In a few very rare cases, it may be impossible for the citation templates to create an anchor. Either (1) the citation is formatted with a template that does not support the |ref= parameter or (2) the source can't be described using our citation templates at all. In these cases, it is possible to use {{wikicite}} to make the anchor. (As of November 2010, there are only approximately 100 articles that require this technique.) It is also possible that (3) local editors would prefer not to use citation templates. In this case, it is important to discuss what the local editors would like to do about the bad links. It is always possible to simply remove {{harv}} or {{sfn}}.

It is also possible to use <cite> to achieve the same effect, but this may not be compatible with HTML 5.

Citation has multiple authors and no date

The templates assume that the last field is the year. Where there are multiple authors and no year the template will form a correct link but will display the last author as if it were a year. To force the displayed text to show all authors as name, the following work around may be used:

The Harvard citation templates create a wikilink to the anchor. For example {{Harv|Smith|2006|p=25}} produces the link #CITEREFSmith2006 and {{Citation|last=Smith|first=John|date=27 January 2006|title=My Life}} produces the anchor CITEREFSmith2006.

Using CITEREF directly

A few articles create a custom ID using CITEREF, either in place of the Harvard citation template (e.g. [[#CITEREFSmith2006|(2006)]]) or as a value for |ref= in the citation template.
A custom ID must follow these rules:

Template {{sfn}} creates a named footnote, so that identical footnotes are combined automatically. The footnote name begins with FOOTNOTE followed by a concatenation of the arguments to {{sfn}}. E.g.: this template call {{sfn|Smith|2006|p=26}} should have exactly the same functionality as <ref name="FOOTNOTESmith200626">{{Harvnb}}</ref> which, in turn, has the same functionality as <ref name="FOOTNOTESmith200626">[[#CITEREFSmith2006|Smith (2006)]], p. 26</ref>.